Desoto Falls

I am going on about 6 weeks where I have only seen the sun probably 2 times.  I'm feeling a little depressed and am upping my Vitamin D as I have a history of it plummeting to extremely low levels. So while I hang out inside feeling unmotivated, I thought I would go back and finish some posts that I didn't have time to do when the weather WAS nice and we were spending all our time outside and I wasn't posting anything.  So I can remember the nice outdoor days and look forward to them again...spring is coming...spring is coming.... in the mean time lets revisit one of our previous hikes and look forward to doing more of that soon!

Desoto Falls was a great hike to do with the kids.  It's located in Lumpkin County, Georgia.  There is a little history to this area, it is named Desoto falls because a breastplate of armor was discovered in the 1880s that came from the men under Hernando Desoto that were in the area in 1541.  There were originally three falls you could hike to on this trail, but one is now closed after the storm of the century in 1993 and the upper falls are now inaccessible.   

We enjoyed our hikes to both falls.  When you arrive you come to a trail head (with a marker giving the story about the breastplate from Hernando Desoto) that give the history of the area and then you can go either left or right.  We took the trail to the right first, visiting that fall and then walked back and visited the fall to the left of the trail head, which was smaller and a shorter walk.  Both trails are not too long and easily doable with young children.  

This hike is very easy, more of a nature walk than a "hike"

Length : about 2 miles

Parking: $3

Directions and additional info about the trail Atlantatrails.com

Exploring an Old Homestead

We recently had the pleasure of a wonderful outing at our friends historic family homestead.  We started with a picnic by one of the waterfalls on the property and then hiked around and even got to see old indian markings on the cliff rocks.  There was even a cave where my best friend's mom and her sisters used to build fires and cook noodles as kids.  This land in Cowiche, WA was breathtaking and amazing in the middle of winter, I can't wait to go back in summer!  I hope my friends turn this family property into a wedding venue after they fix up the 100 year old barn!  If I still lived in WA my friend and I agreed we would totally go into business together doing something special out here!

Learning can happen Anytime and Anywhere

                                     

As part of our Charlotte Mason Nature Club, we recently made a trip to the planetarium for a celestial show to be followed by going to the observatory to use the telescope and view the constellations and a comet. The kids loved the show at the planetarium but unfortunately we couldn't find the telescope observation place afterwards, out in the mountains in the dark..we just could not find it so disappointed,  we came home.  It was already late for our young kids but when we got home I looked up and the sky was clear and brilliant.  Orion was IN YOUR FACE there, so I had hubby put the boys to bed while I got out sleeping bags and rolled them out on the back deck.  We didn't have to be up early in the morning so we snuggled in the sleeping bags observing the skies and constellations.  I had stepped out of the show at the Planetarium because the baby was getting too excited and vocal so it was neat that my daughter started noticing constellations I didn't know about and missed hearing about in the show and listening to her telling me about them.  Just laying out there for a while, she was able to notice how the stars and moon had shifted in the sky and we were able to talk about that, and what direction the sun rises and sets and same with the moon tracking across the sky as everything spins and orbits.

 "SCIENCE!!!"

What was disappointing (missing the telescope viewing) turned into an opportunity to seize the moment and create a special memory and learning experience, and a reminder to me why I love homeschooling and having a flexible schedule...being able to stay up til 11:30 watching the stars in winter snuggled in a sleeping bag, and not having to be anywhere first thing in the morning.  Learning doesn't have to happen at a certain time of day or in a certain place.  It can happen anytime, anywhere.

DIY Maple Syrup - Nature Study

Making Maple Syrup

Nature Study and being outdoors is a huge part of our homeschool life so I was thrilled when my husband decided to try tapping a couple of the maple trees in our backyard and make our own maple syrup.  My hubs ordered the taps off amazon and set them up and then we just had to wait for the right weather as the temperature has to have certain fluctuations overnight to get the sap flowing.  We finally had the needed fluctuation and got 3-4 liters of maple tree sap.

Can you see the 2 trees that are tapped with the 2 liter bottles? That's the maple sap collection set up

We measured it out with the kids and then put it in our largest pot to simmer all day.

 Finally the maple sap had reduced enough and we got about 3 ounces.  Just enough for our Sunday gluten free pancake breakfast!

We poured the final product into a recyled maple syrup glass container.  The maple syrup was just like...maple syrup.  The only difference I noticed with our maple syrup vs the kind we buy was ours had a slight vanilla taste to it.

Here's to learning how stuff's made....in real life!

Have access to any maple trees?  Here's how

Scented Etched Wood Alphabet Montessori-Waldorf Inspired

Essential Oil Diffusing Wood Alphabet Tracing Cards

Sensory Alphabet Wood Chips

Scented Sensory Alphabet Tracing Blocks

(I'm not exactly sure what to call them so I'm coming up with lots of titles lol)

Here is a fun DIY Christmas gift I made for my kiddos.  My husband has cut down so many trees around the house I'm always wondering what else I could use the wood for besides firewood.  I'm really excited how these turned out and my older daughter asked me to make her some number ones to do math with, so I guess that's next.



I found a log about 3 inches in diameter and sliced it up with the circle saw.  Then next step would be t sand them but I didn't do that...they aren't that rough, my actually husband asked if I had sanded them because they were decently smooth...I just didn't know where any sandpaper was.
Then I just had fun free handing the alphabet on each slice with the wood burner tool.  Mine was from hobby lobby and around $7 with coupon and I don't know if there are better ones out there since this was my first time using one, but it was kinda slow.  However we had Christmas music on and the kids were playing so it was easy to just have out and do throughout the day, a letter here a letter there.

After I finished the alphabet, I poured some olive oil in a bowl and added some essential oil to it and then used a paint brush to brush the oil onto the wood slices to seal them and make them scented.  So they are like essential oil diffusing alphabet learning wood block things that are also fun to stack as blocks, I should have taken a picture of that!  I was inspired by the wooden Montessori sand paper alphabet cards, but also incorporating nature into what we do as much as possible mindset of Waldorf and Charlotte Mason.  I made the grooves of the letters as deep as I could to increase the sensory experience of tracing their finger over the letters.  Anyways, I get excited about using stuff from outside so I'm in love with these!  I had wanted to make a couple sets for Christmas gifts but I don't think I'll have time, but now I know for future gifts what to make!

My next idea for some wood is building a little tree house for Calico Critters....If it happens I'll be sure to let you know!

First Egg

Well those chickens are starting to earn their keep as we got our first egg this past weekend!  Although that's not a fair statement really, they've already been earning their keep with all their bug eating!  They are like vacuums all day long! The bug population on our property is way down compared to last year!  Last year you would walk across the lawn and every step you'd take it seemed like 20 crickets and grasshoppers would pop up, scorpion sightings are down as well.  Anyways, the spider population is a lot less too.  Last year we had big spider webs on every window of our house and every morning when I would walk outside I would always get some thick sticky spider web on me, even though we kept cleaning and yes, killing spiders.  So far there has only been one big spider on a window which was super gross but I got that taken care of with a vacuum.  Anyways, now our biggest chicken, a barred rock has started laying eggs! 

B is watching her work on laying her egg

She took a little break to come say hello

It was on saturday and we were outside and letting the girls free range and heard loud weird chicken sounds coming from the coop, my husband looked at me like what the?  Then I remembered when I took the kids to Farmer Sue's on a field trip and we watched a chicken lay and egg and all the noise she made and told the kids we better go check...sure enough she was in the coop pacing around, squatting and making loud noise then pacing around again....the kids were fascinated!  After a while we decided to give her some privacy so we followed the other chickens down our path in the woods my hubby made and started making some art with nature while we waited.  First the kids made a nature lady and then B and I made a "long neck" dinosaur.

After a while we checked back on the chicken and the other chickens had all come back and were on the ramp to the coop very curious as to what the heck was going on in there with all that racket.  They were standing on the tippy toes with necks stretched out towards the door, creeping closer but very hesitant.  Finally she laid her egg, ate a bunch of feed and then went about the rest of her day as normal.  J was so excited she called her uncle right away who also has chickens close in age to ours and then called her papa and told him the exciting news as well as informing him "...the egg was warm and smelled like a chicken butt!" lol it didn't really stink, just had a bit of a farmy smell but I wouldn't say it smelled like a chicken butt FYI.

I went to peek in the window on the hen and my hubby casually says "watch out for that spider right by your head" I didn't think much, then saw THIS THING!!! Can you say ARACHNOPHOBIA!  And look at that weird zipper like thing it made!  Anyways, last year we had spiders like this on all our bushes...havent seen any since the hens are out eating all the time.  This is the first one and it's way away from the house. But still....EEEEEEWWWWWW!

So we haven't tried them yet, they are kinda small at this point so we were going to wait to get a couple of them and then give them a try :)